Bye Bye Bolivia..

After spending 22 days in Bolivia I feel like I´ve seen & experienced enough of the country to sum it up with my Highs & Lows:

HIGHS

1. Adventure Brew Hostal!! (awesome beer, free all-you-can-eat pancakes, and hot showers.. what more can one ask for??!!)

2. Meeting amazing travelers

3. Street food lady in La Paz (you could get sausage hotdogs the size of an infant´s forearm with hot sauce for less then .80cents- yummmmm:)

4. Sucre! (favorite city in all of Bolivia)

5. Potosi mine tour (interesting & extremely difficult)

6. Going to the Pampas and encountering loads of wildlife

7. Insanely CHEAP!!!!

8. The mountain town of Sorata

9. Salar de Uyuni (the most phenomenal landscape I´ve seen)

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LOWS

1. No grocery stores (some wouldn´t percieve this as a bad thing, but you could of seen the food I had to eat you´d wish you´d have the option of buying your own food & making it also:)

2. Nothing was ever opened. Ever..

3. The food:( just simply uneventful & often rotten

4. People were less friendly & mostly just seemed annoyed

5. COLD ALL THE TIME

6. Had to pay $135 bucks for a Visa to visit basically because their current president Avo Morales used to be a coca farmer and the US has something called The War on Drugs

7. vacancy of ATMS (literally only 2 cities in the entire country have themÑ La Paz & Sucre)

8. Enhaling sulfuric arsenic acid ember shit from both the Potosi mines & La Paz

9. EVERYTHING had to be a tour, and I hate tours

10. LA PAZ!!!! My least favorite city I´ve ever been. It is cold, heavily polluted, dodgy, too much drugs & nothing to do:(


My Overall opinion of Bolivia

Bolivia is one spectacular & beautiful country. One with loads of possability which is why it is so sad that it is by far the poorest country in all of S. America. Its history is lush and rich, one filled with colonization & conquerorization, one that is grounded in the indigenous way of life, educated in one aspect, however, heavily handicapped in others. It seems illogical to me how Bolivia contains the most natural resources in all of S. America yet is the poorest. The reason is because once Bolivia extracts their natural resources they export them to get refined in other countries and then buy them back (at a discounted rate) refined. The problem is that a raw material is worth far less then a refined one. The solution seems easy.. Why doesn´t Bolivia just build their own refinery for their oil, silver, etc?? The problem with this is that it is exensive. Bolivia doesn´t see that in the long-run the benefit of building one would greatly outweigh the intitial cost.

Bolivia has been one great, beautiful ball of confusion. I like the country, but it seems a bit self-defeatist. Perhaps my perspective is a bit jaded since I am from the States. I definelty felt a little more annomsity here with me being an American then from the other countries I´ve traveled to. The frusteration is understandable since Bolivia is the 2nd largest grower of the coca plant and the US has sent planes over in the past in an attempt to terminate certain coca plantations. My advice to both countries would be this: Bolivia build a freaking refinery! And give up on this War on Drugs the US-- it´s silly ;)